The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana does not form either symbiosis, making M. truncatula an important tool for studying these processes.

The Medicago truncatula Sequencing Consortium began in 2001 with a seed grant from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation.

In 2003, the National Science Foundation and the European Union 6th Framework Programme began providing most of the funding.

[5] The assembly of the genome sequence in M. truncatula was based on bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs).

This is the same approach used to sequence the genomes of humans, the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, and the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana.

Researcher Toby Kiers of VU University Amsterdam and associates used M. truncatula to study symbioses between plants and fungi – and to see whether the partners in the relationship could distinguish between good and bad traders/suppliers.

[8] Courty, Pierre Emmanuel; Smith, Penelope; Koegel, Sally; Redecker, Dirk; Wipf, Daniel (1 June 2015).